Henry eyes Globe in deal for NYT's Sox stake-source

By Ben Klayman

June 18, 2010Updated Apr 28, 2009 at 3:11 PM EDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Hedge fund manager John Henryis looking at taking control of the money-losing Boston Globenewspaper as part of a deal to buy New York Times Co'sstake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team, a source familiarwith the situation said Tuesday.

The Times put its 17.75 percent stake in New England SportsVentures (NESV), which owns the Red Sox, their home field ofFenway Park and adjacent real estate, up for sale in January.

A spokeswoman for Henry, who led the group that bought theNESV assets in 2002 for $700 million including debt, referredquestions to the Red Sox. Spokeswomen for the team and theTimes declined to comment.

The Times acquired its stake in the ownership group at thattime for an estimated $75 million. The Red Sox have won twoWorld Series titles since then.

NESV also includes half of the Roush Fenway Racing NASCARteam and an 80 percent stake in the NESN regional sports cableTV network.

Before the markets deteriorated last year, analysts andbankers had estimated the Times stake could be worth up to $200million. A Barclays Capital analyst last year valued it atabout $166 million.

However, the stake's lack of voting rights and Henry'sability to control who buys it likely makes it far lessvaluable, analysts have said. Tight credit makes the possiblelist of buyers even shorter.

The U.S. newspaper industry has been losing readers andadvertisers as more people get news online, forcing publishersto cut budgets and jobs and to sell assets.

The Times said in January that the Red Sox sale did notinclude the possibility of selling the Globe, which the Timesbought for more than $1 billion in the 1990s.

The Times has threatened to shut the Globe unless thenewspapers' unions agree to $20 million in concessions, theGlobe reported earlier this month.

Separately, Tribune Co, publisher of the Chicago Tribuneand Los Angeles Times, is trying to close its deal to sell theChicago Cubs baseball team and other related assets for $900million. (Reporting by Ben Klayman in Chicago; Additional reporting byRobert MacMillan in New York; Editing by Richard Chang, ToniReinhold)

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